Missing Woman Located

At approximately 10:15 p.m. on Jan. 31, the Paramus Police Department responded to the Bergen Town Center shopping mall on a missing person report.

Upon arrival, police interviewed the family of a 73-year-old Paramus woman who suffered from dementia. The victim’s family reported that their mother had been shopping at the outlets at approximately 6:15 p.m. with a nursing aide. Sometime after that, the aide lost the victim, who was carrying her poodle in a handbag, in the mall. The aide searched the area on her own, not reporting the incident until approximately 10:15 p.m.

The Paramus Police Department and Paramus Office of Emergency Management set up a command post at the shopping center, and, with assistance of the Paramus Fire Department, Paramus Rescue Squad and Paramus Emergency Medical Services, began to search a wide area in the Route 4 corridor of Paramus, including parking lots wooded areas, streams and drainage ditches.

Security surveillance video showed the victim leaving the mall at approximately 6:45 p.m. then walking toward Route 4. Police were not certain whether the victim, who has gone missing before, had boarded one of the many busses that service the shopping area. Missing person alerts were sent to all New Jersey police departments as well as Port Authority and New York police agencies. All transportation companies in the area were also notified. Emergency services searched throughout the night, assisted by a New Jersey State Police helicopter and units from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office and Bergen County Police Department. A missing person’s alert was also placed on Nixle/Twitter messenger and Facebook.

At approximately 8:10 a.m. the following morning, Maryann Chambers, a River Edge resident, recognized the missing woman on Bogart Street in River Edge. Paramus police responded and transported the woman to Hackensack University Medical Center for observation. The woman and her dog were in good condition. Police are still trying to determine where the victim had been through the night.

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